Procurement Reform … and the Canadian Press!

The press seem to have caught on to the Canadian Federal Government procurement reform initiative and are having some fun with it. I’m sure there are some senior people squirming at AT Kearney and PWGSC, and if not, then they should be!

The Globe and Mail ran a neat little story last week and painted a pretty good picture of the situation … makes for good reading! Most of the industry associations have been involved and CATA has probably been most vocal in the debate about the Federal Government’s “Way Forward” procurement strategy, even calling it the “Way Backward”. There was also a cynical view of the situation painted on the political site Next Agenda .

As if all this was not enough the Globe and Mail published stories about David Rotor going to England in June on a “fact finding mission” related to this initiative. I won’t even mention the obvious, but this trip went from bad to worse when Rotor “stood up”, not one, but two British officials who had set aside time to meet with him! Rotor is the “procurement expert” the government hired to head up this initiative … outside of the $24 million I would suggest! Interesting that the Canadian government had to apologise to British officials for a hired gun!

The momentum around this issue is ballooning and maybe someone will come to their senses and adopt a collaborative approach to procurement reform. The people that have been working with the current system have much to contribute … it would be nice to be part of the solution rather than watch the next Federal Government scandal unfold!